ACT Minister David Seymour says bad regulation is killing New Zealand's prosperity and now is the time for a "significant reset".
The Associate Finance and Regulation Minister made the comments in a speech to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce this morning.
He told the business crowd his Regulatory Standards Bill was the long-term solution to good regulation, contrasting it to the way the Public Finance Act influences public spending.
"This is about raising the political cost of making bad laws by allowing New Zealanders to hold regulators accountable.
"The outcome will be better law-making, higher productivity, and higher wages because New Zealanders will be able to spend more time doing useful work, and less time complying for little reason."
Seymour said a introducing legislation for a four-year term, with opposition-controlled select committees, was another powerful way of improving policy and debate.
"Lawmaking would be slower, and would face tough scrutiny at committees where the public can submit. At the moment, select committees have Government-aligned majorities."
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Seymour also cited his Treaty Principles Bill - and the intense debate around it - as a piece of legislation that sought to enhance the role of liberal democracy.
"Even those who say they vehemently disagree with the Bill are showing up to Parliament and submitting. In fact, there have never been so many submissions to Parliament on one Bill.
"It is not only the contents of the Bill that reinforce liberal democracy, it is the inherent effect of taking the debate back to Parliament that is important."
On the theme of cutting red tape, Seymour said Budget 2024 funding had paid for up to 15 new charter schools and the conversion of 35 state schools over the course of the term.
"The first school that opened this year, Mastery School in Christchurch, is a partner school to Mastery in Australia. What's really interesting about Mastery is their use of interns. I believe the last twenty years of degrees for everyone has been a failure. On-the-job learning is coming back into vogue."
He also discussed overseas investment, saying it was both integral to the government's economic growth strategy and inhibited by laws "among the worse in the developed world".
"If we are going to raise wages, we can't afford to ignore the simple fact that our competitors gain money and know-how from outside their borders.
"The Government intends to simplify our overseas investment rules and I will be making an announcement about this very shortly."
He told the business crowd bad regulation was killing the country's prosperity in three ways: the cost, what doesn't happen because of the cost, and "the big one that goes to the heart of our identity and culture".
"It's all the kids who grow up in a country where people gave up or weren't allowed to try. It's the climbing wall at Sir Edmund Hillary's old school with signs saying don't climb. It's the lack of nightlife because it's too hard to get a licence. It's the fear that comes from worrying WorkSafe or some other regulator will come and shut you down. You can't measure it, but we all know it's there."
Seymour said successive governments had paid lip service to cutting red tape.
"The Kiwi spirit we are so proud of is being chipped away and killing our vibe. Nobody migrated here to be compliant, but compliance is infantilising our culture, and I haven't even mentioned orange cones yet."
He described the Resource Management Act as the "biggest single policy problem" in the country and gave assurances the coalition was designing new laws that would make it easier to get stuff done.
Seymour also tipped his online 'red tape tipline', saying more than 500 tips had been received since it was launched and he wanted the public to keep them coming.
"Some of the biggest themes coming through the tipline are about traffic management and anti-money laundering. The Ministry is working with other government agencies to identify and cut red tape.
"My message to all the tradies, farmers, teachers, chefs, and engineers out there - every person doing productive work - is this: If there's red tape in your industry that needs to go, we want to know about it."
The government was already reviewing the early childhood education, agricultural and horticultural products and hairdressing and barbering sectors, he said.
"I anticipate announcing the Ministry's fourth regulatory review in the next few months."
Seymour also pushed the coalition's economic growth message and didn't miss the chance to have a crack at the opposition, saying Labour was "radically to the left" of the Helen Clark government.
"In some ways, Helen Clark was even to the right of John Key. She refused to sign the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which Key's Government did.
"The Māori Party was formed due to her legislating over the Ngāti Apa court case with the foreshore and seabed legislation, a position that the Key Government partially reversed."
The ACT leader lamented the state of the big debates of the day, saying they used to be about the parameters of social insurance in the form of taxes, benefits and services.
"Fast forward to today, and we can no longer rely on a cross-party commitment to liberal democracy and economic orthodoxy. Were the Government to change, we would face a Government where one party seriously suggests an appointed Treaty Commissioner should have a veto on the elected Parliament."
